Transfer devices are known whose mandrel wheel and transfer wheel are arranged adjacent to one another and which include receiving mandrels or supports in their periphery for objects to be imprinted or processed in another manner, wherein the receiving mandrels are respectively connected with the mandrel wheel and the supports are connected with the transfer wheel and the distance of the receiving mandrels from the rotation axis of the mandrel wheel is variable between a minimum distance and a maximum distance.
During their processing, objects to be processed, for example aerosol cans, aluminum bottles or other hollow elements or containers run through plural processing stations. The transport along the processing stations which perform among other things priming, imprinting, decorating or lacquering is performed through a transport device. For a transport device, typically a continuously moving chain conveyor is used which is configured with retaining rods that protrude in lateral direction and are offset from one another with a fixated pitch T1, wherein the retaining rods carry the objects. When an object reaches a printing station, it has to be transferred from the chain conveyor through a first transfer wheel to a continuously rotating mandrel wheel associated with the printing station and has to be moved back after the printing process has been performed from the mandrel wheel through a second transfer wheel to the chain conveyor. A typically larger pitch T2 of the mandrel wheel that differs from the pitch T1 of the chain conveyor is predetermined by the distance of the receiving mandrels required for the printing station, wherein the distance is measured in circumferential direction of the mandrel wheel. The pitches T1 and T2 that differ from one another cause different feed velocities of the objects on the chain conveyor and mandrel wheel and therefore have to be compensated when moving the objects from the chain conveyor to the mandrel wheel and/or from the mandrel wheel to the chain conveyor on a transfer path. This pitch compensation is facilitated in that the supports at the transfer wheel and the receiving mandrels at the mandrel wheel are movably supported.
EP 1 132 207 B1 describes a transfer device with a mandrel wheel and a transfer wheel in which the supports and the receiving mandrels are respectively attached at the transfer wheel or the mandrel wheel through a linear support for pitch compensation. The transfer path is a straight line, wherein the rotation axes of the mandrel wheel or the transfer wheel respectively have the same perpendicular distance from the transfer path. A common conveying speed on the transfer path between the mandrel wheel and the transfer wheel is facilitated through driving them with identical speeds. The number of the supports or receiving mandrels attached at the transfer wheel and the mandrel wheel are therefore identical.
Prior art transfer devices therefore have the advantage that due to the recited kinematic- and engineering features (straight transfer path, identical orthogonal distance, identical drive speed, and identical number of supports or receiving mandrels), the transfer wheel and the mandrel wheel have similar sizes. Thus, the compactness of the transfer device is limited.